Baseball: Angels react to Biogenesis suspensions

Someday, when time has banished Biogenesis from the newspapers to the history books, the names of Alex Rodriguez, Nelson Cruz and 10 other players suspended by Major League Baseball for their connections to a shuttered Miami drug clinic will blur together in one historical moment.

Monday, the names and the news were too fresh.

Cruz, the Texas Rangers outfielder who was suspended 50 games for violating the joint drug agreement between Major League Baseball and the MLB Players' Association, played with Angels outfielder Josh Hamilton and pitcher C.J. Wilson from 2008-11. The rest of the Rangers were sitting in the opposite clubhouse Monday

and entered a three-game series against the Angels up 10 games in the standings.

Wilson couldn't bring himself to mention Rodriguez by name at one point, but his comments about Cruz were more measured.

"I've known Nelson for years and years and always thought he was a great guy, a great teammate," Wilson said. "But at this point, he's a competitor. He's on the other team, so it's really immaterial what I think."

Cruz is leading the Rangers in home runs (27) and runs batted in (76). His suspension effectively removes him from the team for the rest of the regular season.

For Hamilton, who left the Rangers for the Angels, the memories of Cruz as a teammate remain fresh.

"I was there last year, seeing him come to spring training and what he looked like, and just asked the same questions everybody else did: 'What happened,' 'How did you get sick?' 'What was it?' those things," Hamilton said.

"There's nothing he ever said to me that made me question what he was doing."

Cruz, who was said to be en route to Texas from Anaheim, said in a statement he took a banned substance after falling ill with a gastrointestinal infection between November, 2011 and January, 2012.

"By the time I was properly diagnosed and treated, I had lost 40 pounds," the statement read. "Just weeks before I was to report to spring training in 2012, I was unsure whether I would be physically able to play. Faced with this situation, I made an error in judgment that I deeply regret ... My illness was no excuse."

Hamilton said he was surprised to learn Cruz took a banned substance.

"You know your teammates, you spend a lot of time with them," Hamilton said. "Take them for what you see. He was always a good teammate. I saw his statement today. He said he made a mistake. I made plenty of those."